


Let It Burn

by justdrifting



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 02:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1965582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdrifting/pseuds/justdrifting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She remembers the day he moved from his office to his sleeping pod.  (Epitaph verse).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let It Burn

She remembers the day he moved from his office to the sleeping pod. It had been just another normal day—or normal as a day when the world was ending could be—and she had come by his office at the usual time to give him his meds. Only he hadn’t been there. She’d searched everywhere she could think of, growing more and more worried by the minute. Where could he  _be_?  
  
After almost an hour of frenzied searching she’d heard him singing to himself in one of the actives’ bedrooms. At first she’d seen nothing when she’d stepped inside, but then her eyes focussed on the tuft of yellow hair poking up from one of the pods.  
  
“Topher? Is that you?” she’d called to him. His singing had stopped and his head had popped up.  
  
“Hello!” he’d said. “I’ve been waiting for you. Quick, over here!” and he’d gestured frantically with his hands.  
  
She’d made her way over to him slowly. “Topher, what are you doing down here? Why aren’t you in your office?”  
  
He’d shook his head and flicked his hands at her. “I wanted to be away from the machines. They make such big  _whizz, whizz_  noises. And look what I found!” He chortled and grabbed her hands. “Look, we can play hide and seek! We can hide here and they won’t never find us. No, no, sir, they won’t think to look here and we can hide and be safe. Be safe. We want to be safe.”  
  
She hated it when he got into one of his rants, so she’d knelt down and slipped into the pod with him. He’d brought a few things with him from his office; his blanket and pillow, a box of crayons and a bar of chocolate.   
  
“Are you staying here forever, then?” she’d asked.  
  
He’d nodded. “Yup. It makes me feel safe.”  
  
“Oh, sweetheart,” she’d said—sighed really—and she’d leaned over to pull him into her arms. He’d already started drawing on the walls, she’d noted as she looked around the pod. “So what’s this?” she’d asked him, pointing to the picture on the wall. It was of the earth, all green and blue, but there were angry red markings surrounding it. A stick-figure man with blond hair was drawn off to the side, his hand pointing towards the earth.  
  
“The world’s burning, going down in flames, and it’s my fault, all mine, mine alone. I caused it. I pushed the button. Now I watch it burn.”  
  
His babble had turned her to ice and she’d sat there, eyes transfixed to the image on the wall. Then, she’d recovered herself and patted his hair. “Of course it’s not your fault, sweetheart.” The lie had felt heavy on her tongue.  
  
He’d shook his head again, fervently now. “It is, it is, it is. It’s all mine. Just mine.”  
  
She’d been unsure of what to do. She knew he blamed himself solely for the downfall of the world, and she had no way of letting him know that it wasn’t just him. But then her eye’s had fallen on his box of crayons. Slowly, she’d picked one up. She’d hesitated only a second before beginning drawing. When she was done there was a woman beside the man. It wasn’t much, but he might be able to understand it. “There, now,” she’d said. “Not just yours. It’s my fault too.”  
  
He’d stared at her, his eyes wide and unsure. His gaze had shifted to the altered drawing, and his fingers had reached out to touch the woman she had added.  
  
“You too?” he’d asked, and she’d nodded.  
  
He’d smiled then. “The both of us.”  
  
“Yes,” she’d said. He’d reached for her and she’d him tightly and rocked him back and forth until he fell asleep, but her eyes never leaving the picture on the wall.  
  
.  
  
So now she sits beside him in his pod, her arm around his waist and his head on her shoulder. It’s too easy to hide from the world down here. She can forget everything in this hideaway. She can pretend everything’s right in the world, that it’s still how it used to be.   
  
She stares at the wall in front of her. That drawing’s long gone by now; hundreds of newer ones covering it. But she can still see it clearly, too clearly. The child-like drawing that held too much power, revealed too much of what they had done.  
  
So here they sit in this hideaway they’ve built together, hiding from the world as they calmly watch it go up in flames.


End file.
